Abstract
[...]Rolf suggests that Soviet festivals became an effective vehicle for the "inner Sovietization" of society regardless of whether ordinary people accepted or resisted them. The author does describe how Soviet planners staged street festivals and refashioned towns to allow for more effective, and more Bolshevik, processions, but his interest lies in institutional and social history, not aesthetics. There is some discussion of festival methodology at the beginning of the book, but the author tends to treat street festivals, birthday celebrations, and public holidays without much differentiation.